Crock pot rice is one of my favorite ways to save money. I get brown rice or even white rice for FREE with my coupons all the time. However, it takes forever to cook brown rice…. 40 minutes to be exact! I don’t have time for that. 🙂 Do you? Probably not.
However, I’m not going to pay for an over priced box of rice just to save me a few minutes. Instead, I like to cook my rice in BULK in the crock pot. I can cook an entire pound of rice in under 3 hours without ever having to look at the pan. If I can clean or play with the kids while my rice is cooking then I’m much better off. 😉
Then what I do, is divide that crock pot rice into equal containers to freeze. Yes… I actually freeze my rice.
It is really easy to freeze rice. I then can pop my frozen rice in to the microwave for my own cheaper (or free) minute rice. Win- win! Make sure you read my post on how to freeze rice.
Ok – How to cook rice in a slow cooker:
Add olive olive, oil, rice and water to your crockpot. You can do 2-4 cups of rice. 4 cups of rice is an entire 1 lb package so that is what I always do. Make sure you use Olive oil or butter in there to keep the rice from sticking. I actually forgot it this last time and my rice was sticker than normal.
You will want to make sure you have double the water than you do rice. So if you are cooking 2 cups of rice, use 4 cups of water. If you cook 4 cups of rice, you will need 8 cups of water (at least). I always add in a bit more. 😉
You can season it or even use chicken stock if you want. However, I just like to have plain rice, so I can season it with each meal that I am going to make.
Before you know it you will have delicious rice ready to eat or freeze! If you are cooking white rice, it will be done in slightly under 2 hours.
Cooking Brown Rice in a crock pot:
Brown rice takes about 3 hours to cook on high. It is that easy!
Get a Programmable Crockpot if you work all day:
Now you definitely need a crockpot for this recipe. There are some really good ones on sale right now. If you work all day, you may want to invest in a programmable crockpot. They are awesome because you can set them to start later, or to stop and switch to warm once the dinners are ready. Amazon has some on sale right now too.
Now if you want to save yourself even more time (don’t we all?) then I really recommend these Crockpot liners. They make clean up a breeze. Instead of scrubbing and washing the pot, you can just toss the liner. It is practically no clean up.
How much does this cost?
Well, I got mine for free, but even if you don’t use a coupon or get it on sale, this is a HUGE money saver. 1 lb of rice is about $2, versus $3 for a box of rice that has about a 1/2 of the amount of rice inside. You can easily save 50% just by making your rice ahead of time and freezing it. However, if you are using coupons and shopping the sales you will save even more!
- 2 to 4 cups of rice
- 4 to 8 cups of water (you want double the water as rice)
- 2-4 Tablespoons of butter or olive oilt
- Garlic Salt (optional)
- Salt
- Oil up the inside of your crockpot with the olive oil so your rice doesn't stick.
- Place the rice on the bottom of the crockpot and season with salt and garlic salt.
- Pour Water over the rice. (You want double the water as rice, so if you have 2 cups of rice, you will need 4 cups of water).
- Cook on high for 2 to 2½ hours for white rice or 3 hours for brown rice.
- Fluff with a fork and serve or freeze.
Make sure you check out all my Crock Pot recipes here.
Michele ºÜº says
I just saw this today, January 12, 2015, posted on my facebook newsfeed. Oddly enough, I was just preparing a post for my blog for tomorrow about my goof-up with making rice in the crock pot.
I used brown rice. It was about 1 1/2 cups of rice and if I remember correctly, I put nearly 4 cups of water in my little 1 1./2 qt crock pot on low. The problem is that when we got home (5 1/2 hours later) the rice was all sticky. I read a recipe recently where the blogger made a chicken and rice recipe in her crock pot but when she used brown rice it got too sticky; she fixed it by using instant brown rice. I have to tell you mine was like mush.
Do you have any ideas for me?
Carrie says
Michele, I think you probably just cookied it too long. I would cook it when you are at home (like on the weekend) so you can get an idea of how long it takes your crock pot to cook it. Then from that day on you will know what a good amount of time is.
Bri says
I cook 4 cups of rice (or more) for any meal I need rice in and I always do it on the stove top. In fact, mostly my 11 year old cooks the rice. She sometimes even makes rice for breakfast before I am even out of bed. I see nothing about cooking it in the crock pot that actually saves time or effort. For white rice you bring 2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice in a pan and bring it to boil. Then you pour in your rice, turn onto low, set a timer for 20 minutes, and walk away until the timer goes off. Brown rice is the same except the time is 40 minutes like you mentioned above. In my head cooking rice for 20 minutes or even 40 minutes saves more time than 3 hours. You can still divide and freeze the rice and you saved 2 hours or more of time.
Bri says
I am sorry, I suppose I shouldn’t have made my comment. You may delete if you wish. I wrote it with the thought of helping you actually conserve time but that is not the way it appears. It was not meant as an attack of your idea or way of doing things. I do apologize if it came across that way. The internet is so full of people being negative and attacking people and I don’t want to be one of them.
Carrie says
Oh Bri, don’t feel bad. We are all entitled to our opinions. I make rice in the crockpot and on the stove. However, there are often times when I I don’t have 30 minutes to make rice, because the kids need to eat as soon as the get home from school or inbetween activities. However, I can toss it in the crockpot before I leave for the carpool lane, and I love having it ready for me when I get home. 🙂
Basia Kost says
This is probably a really dumb question but how do you reheat your rice without it drying out?
Carrie says
There is no dumb question here Basia :). Ours doesn’t really dry out, but if it does, add in two to 3 tablespoons of water before you reheat it. Or we have even added a few tablespoons of butter.
keri says
This did not work for me at all…..it went from watery and not cooked to gummy and disgusting.
Carrie says
Oh man. That happened once for me. I think it was cooked too long. When I shortened the cook time it worked much better.
Debra Rhoads says
Hi, this is probably a dumb question but minute rice, instant rice, that’s not the kind of rice your talking about, correct? Should i usethe rice that is in a bag? I have only ever used instant rice in the microwave
Carrie says
No stupid questions here -no we are talking about the bagged rice – not the minute rice. It is much cheaper in the bags.
Cheryle says
I’m going to try this method since I can’t cook it correctly on the stove & believe it or not it doesn’t turn out well in my rice cooker. I’m supposed to eat brown rice & my husband would be happy if he never had to eat any rice again.
Mel says
Not sure what everyone is talking about. I followed this recipe to to the letter and my rice came out fab! Thanks!
TK says
For anyone who has their rice turn out really sticky or gooey, try putting it into a strainer and rinsing it under cold water. This helps to rinse away the additional starch so the rice separates and is usable.
Thanks for this great recipe and the suggestion to freeze the rice! I was apprehensive to use brown rice before finding this because of the cooking time, but cooking a large batch to freeze for later works perfectly.
Doug Reinbold says
i use black rice for lunches.
Crock pot prepaid & freeze.
in sandwich bags.
Green steamed vegetables.
Smoothie:
4 oz silk protein nutmilk,
Frozen pitted cherries (hand full),
1 banana, 3 strawberries, 1 tablespoons
Frozen concentration pineapple/orange
Juice. 1 granny Smith apple.
3 tablespoons nonfat Greek yogurt.
That’s ” Wall timer” spelling correction,
Override 🙁
Brenda says
How much rice/water can I make in a 6 quart crockpot?
Sarah Dickison says
2 TBS olive oil, brushed inside walls of crock pot.
2 C brown rice (not instant).
5 1/2 C water
Pinch of salt
Cooked on High 2 1/2 hrs.
Came out amazing. I will never make brown rice any other way again thank you for changing meals for this family of 10 !
*1st time I made it, after I turned it off, I added 1 stick of butter 1 C of brown sugar and 1 C milk dash of cinnamon and served it for breakfast all of the Littles loved it.
*2nd time I made it, I cooked it with 6 tsp of Better Than Bullion, a pinch of cumin and a sprinkle of cilantro & cooked shred chicken and served for dinner.